Unlisted public company Manda Resources is moving on a raft of Pacgold and Territory Minerals projects in Far North Queensland with the aim of establishing a premier multi-million-ounce gold hub.

Pacgold has inked a deal to demerge its advanced Alice River gold project (pictured above) and St George gold-antimony project in return for 64 million shares in Manda.

Manda also proposes to pick up the Tregoora, Northcote, Atric and Reedy projects within the Hodgkinson gold province via the acquisition of Territory Minerals.

With all three assets within trucking distance of each other, Pacgold said the longer-term strategy was to develop a ‘hub and spoke’ project model where a central processing hub would be fed by ore concentrates produced from the satellite operations.

Manda, which holds the Lake Burnside potash project in Western Australia, has received in-principle approval from the Australian Securities Exchange for an initial public offering with a targeted minimum capital raising of $21 million.

It is backed by its major shareholder, Emerald Resources (ASX: EMR).

Emerald said completion of the planned acquisitions would leave Manda holding a suite of highly prospective gold-antimony
and potash exploration assets.

It would have a combined global JORC mineral resource of 1.33Moz of gold.

Manda would be in a strong position to aggressively explore a consolidated tenement package in excess of 1700sq km, the company said.

Manda has a committed $9 million pre-IPO capital raising, of which Emerald has contributed $6.4 million.

“Manda’s proposed consolidation of the North Queensland assets and capital raisings are strongly supported by Emerald as we believe that with a well-funded vehicle and a managed and focused exploration strategy, these underexplored and historically stranded assets have the potential to deliver significant resource growth and new discoveries, ultimately developing into a project of significant scale aligned with our long-term growth strategy,” Emerald managing director Morgan Hart said.

Pacgold managing director Matthew Boyes described the deal with Manda as a highly compelling transaction that unlocked significant value for Pacgold shareholders.

“By spinning out our North Queensland exploration assets into Manda, we are transferring these highly prospective projects into the hands of a proven, tier-one team with demonstrable success in mine development,” he said.

“Having Emerald Resources’ management, spearheaded by Morgan Hart, Jay Hughes and Bernie Cleary, driving this new vehicle is a real endorsement of the geological potential at the Alice River and St George Projects.

“Manda’s concurrent acquisition of Territory Minerals will create a dominant explorer in a region with clear multimillion-ounce potential.

“Importantly, it realises value for our shareholders through the in-specie share distribution and the planned Manda ASX IPO, retaining leverage to ongoing exploration success at these assets.

“The demerger means we are now exceptionally well-positioned to execute on our focused strategy, with maiden production at White Dam achieved, plant refurbishment now completed, reprocessing of the final lift of the heap leach pad material ramping up and cashflow from gold production imminent.”

Initial work proposed to be undertaken by Manda at Alice River, St George, Tregoora, Northcote, Atric and Reedy assets will focus on infill and extensional drilling.

Drilling is proposed to begin next month, with about 15,000m of drilling (RC and DD) planned prior to the IPO in late 2026. In addition to drilling, regional geochemical surveys, mapping and target generation work will be ongoing.